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Reviews

THIS IS WHAT I DO – VOLUME ONE

“Major self-released collection of stray compilation tracks and unreleased material from one of the singular North American tape/electronic thinkers, Mr Jason Lescalleet. Hard to believe that this collection wasn’t conceived as a single work as it plays out beautifully, running from the kind of solitary tape drone that defined early Mirror through fucked-up radio interference and perforated silence to painfully high hallucinatory tone works that seem to consist of precisely nothing. Indeed, it’s hard to think of anyone else who can render the sound of nada with such physicality and make even the most barren sonic palette seem oddly expressive. This Is What I Do is a trip to the furthest extremes of sound and the kind of immersive sonic experience that is truly brain-bombing w/a set of headphones and that takes over whatever space it plays out in. Looks to be a great series but it’ll take a lot to top this one. Recommended!”

“For the past several weeks, a certain musical malaise has overcome me. I believe
I am coming out of it, but still, it’s disconcerting how little I’ve been interested in exploring new sounds and old haunting grounds. At about the same time, I received This Is What I Do in the mail, and, for that duration, it has been one of the few albums I’ve been able to listen to (with any regularity); it’s practically been on repeat.

I’m not sure exactly why this Lescalleet compilation has fared so well. Partly, I fear that I am getting too old (whatever I’m 24) and settling into my tastes, which favor Jason’s music mightily. But I hope, believe that the former is not (entirely) the case, that the peculiarities of This Is What I Do appeal strongly to my current self, so much so that this release has drowned out its competition.

Because This Is What I Do is as idiosyncratic as they come, really. Miraculously, despite the fact that it is a long-spanning compilation, the disc manages a cohesion seldom found in single session recordings. The transitions between each track are perfect, in no way representing the six year gap between some of their origin; however, what I truly marvel in is the album’s aesthetic consistency. I sense a persistent, impalpable ghastly mood, which is introduced with the meandering drone of “un peu de neige sans raison,” exacerbated by the detached waves of “untitled,” and
nearly dissolved by the initial outburst of “Put ‘em on the Glass.”

And This Is What I Do exhibits a diversity beyond its temporal range. The
clicks of “Needles” offer reprieve from the its predecessor’s drone, while also
delightfully juxtaposing its fuller cousin “A Broken Mirror.” This Is What I
Do is as accomplished—as both a singular item and a mass of single items—as
Lescalleet’s recent collaboration with Graham Lambkin Air Supply, and of similar aesthetic constitution.

This Is What I Do is a personal album, both one grafted onto my experiences and revealing of Jason’s. This dual resonance then manifests as a dialogue between what I am experiencing lately and where Jason was ten years ago—a perceived mutual, though in actuality one-way, empathy.